In 2018, Mitchel Gundrum, a former executive information technology support specialist living in San Francisco, was ready for a career change.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has selected nearly 125 students as recipients of 2019-20 Signature Experience grants. Since 2017, the program has provided UA Little Rock students with a grant of up to $1,000 to fund a signature experience, such as a research project, creative activity, or community project, to enrich the students' academic experience at UA Little Rock.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a $10,000 Google education grant that will help provide free cloud-based cybersecurity labs for junior high and high school students in Arkansas. Additionally, a three-year $276,424 National Science Foundation grant awarded to the UA Little Rock Emerging Analytics Center is being used to develop a free open-source, cybersecurity curriculum for students in Arkansas with assistance from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

Three University of Arkansas at Little Rock students are helping to uncover the secret to successful community partnerships between religious and nonprofit organizations in Little Rock. The Little Rock Congregations Study is an ongoing research project led by Dr. Rebecca Glazier, associate professor in the UA Little Rock School of Public Affairs, stemming from research begun in 2012 about the effects of religious organizations on community engagement in Little Rock. In 2018, student researchers surveyed more than 110 clergy members in the Little Rock area, conducted interviews with 24 clergy members, and wrote 22 stories highlighting partnerships between congregations and community organizations. This fall, they are surveying nonprofit organizations to learn more about when and how partnerships form.

wo University of Arkansas at Little Rock researchers have used a novel approach to quantitatively portray legislative change in Ukraine to provide a view into the larger political dynamics of the country.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock students served as graduate assistants during deep learning workshops provided by Dr. Mariofana Milanova, professor of computer science, who has joined NVIDIA's Deep Learning Institute University Ambassador Program.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Sustainability Committee has awarded nearly $7,000 to five projects proposed by UA Little Rock students with the goal of making the campus more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Emilie Darrigues, a doctoral student in applied science-chemistry, studies how plasmonic nanoparticles, some designed to deliver medicine targeting cancer cells, interact with cell cultures in a 3D model through her work as a graduate research assistant in the Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate has honored his family's legacy by devoting his graduate research to uncovering the history of the Arkansas Highway Police. Cody Besett, 27, of Rogers, graduated May 11 with a Master of Arts in public history with an emphasis in archives and digital collections. Since his father and grandfather were both officers with the Arkansas Highway Police, he was inspired to write his thesis about the state law enforcement agency.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate has created a computer program that can identify emotions on a person's face in real time. Suzan Anwar, of Little Rock, graduated May 11 from UA Little Rock with a Ph.D. in computer and information science. In August, she will begin a new position as an assistant professor of computer science at Philander Smith College, where she has taught robotics courses for the past year. Anwar and her dissertation advisor, Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science, created a face analysis package that uses face and eye detection and eye tracking software to recognize emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise. The second part of the system can track the position of a person's head and what their eyes are looking at when they feel a specific emotion. The software has the potential for a variety of real-world applications.

Juliann Fiallos, a junior geology/biology double major from Ansonia, Connecticut, spent several months this spring examining the levels and impact of microplastics in the Fourche Creek wetlands. Microplastics are microscopic pieces of plastic that are released into the environment as plastic products slowly begin to break down.

Nicole Ursin, a senior anthropology major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has been conducting original research on a community of Micronesian immigrants in Texas.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student is promoting mental health awareness with one inspirational smiley-faced mug at a time. Emilia Rak, a junior social work major, knows what it's like to live with mental health disorders and the challenges and stigma that can come from people who don't understand. "I've struggled with mental health issues for several years, and I would become severely depressed," Rak said. "I had a very good friend, Renee. Her mother passed away a few years ago. She loved coffee, so at her funeral they had a coffee bar. Often, when I was feeling depressed, Renee told me that I had to have a coffee date with her mom in the morning. It was my promise not to harm myself until morning. For many years, my promise to my good friend was the only thing that kept me alive."

Robin Freeman is one of more than 100 UA Little Rock students who received a $1,000 grant to conduct original research, creative works, and community service projects this semester as part of the university's Signature Experience Award program. Freeman is investigating the experiences of women without children and the communication strategies they employ to cope with stigma in society. Freeman presented her research at the Southern States Communication Association Undergraduate Honors Conference earlier this month and at the Student Research and Creative Works Expo held April 18 in the Jack Stephens Center.

UA Little Rock senior Li Morrow grew up fishing in her native China, using just a glass jar with bread in it. "I would tie a string around it and drop into one of the local creeks, ditches or flooded fields then jerk it up if a minnow swam into it," said Morrow, 33, who will graduate on May 11 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering technology . "If it was muddy the fish would often come up to the surface near the bank and I would scoop them up with a little net." Morrow became a U.S. citizen in 2013 and now lives in Lonoke. After a friend took her trout fishing, she was hooked.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student is researching the relationship between religiosity, sexual misconduct, and rape myth acceptance. Michael Meziere, of Little Rock, is examining if religiosity plays a factor in the misconceptions and myths surrounding sexual assaults on college campuses. To carry out this study, Meziere will conduct surveys to gather information on religious beliefs and sexual attitudes. "In society, the acceptance of rape myths, which lead to placing the blame on victims of sexual assault, is a real problem," Meziere said. "There are not many studies that focus on religiosity and rape myth acceptance, so this will hopefully add some good data to that research area. We hypothesized that people who identify as very religious will be less likely to engage"

Four University of Arkansas at Little Rock students presented research at the 29th annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium on March 8 at the Windgate Center of Art and Design.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock doctoral candidate has been selected for a prestigious workshop designed to prepare graduate students for careers in the computer science industry. Adewale Obadimu, a fourth-year computer science doctoral student from Nigeria, has been selected for the 2019 URMD Grad Cohort Workshop March 22-24 in Waikoloa, Hawaii. The Computing Research Association, an organization dedicated to bringing industry, government and academia together to support research and advanced education in computing, hosts the workshop, which is designed specifically for underrepresented minorities and person with disabilities who are attending graduate school in computing fields.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and his students are shedding light on Arkansas's history as the first and only state in the country to legally evict its entire free black population. In 1859, the state passed legislation that required all free blacks and mulattos to leave the state by Jan. 1, 1860. Any who chose to stay would be captured and sold into slavery. Dr. Brian Mitchell, professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, refers to the forced migration of free blacks and mulattos as "Arkansas's other Trail of Tears." "It's an interesting piece of Arkansas history that we know very little about," Mitchell said. "Most people know about forced migration in Native American history, but very few people know that there was a forced migration of free blacks. Arkansas has its own homegrown African-American Trail of Tears that nobody talks about." Mitchell's research was aided by EAST Scholarship Program students, including Evan Alden, Larry Dicus, Ian Thompson, and Cheyenne Shelton. The project is an effort by EAST Scholarship Program students and the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences to highlight the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the humanities.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student is conducting research on how measures to address histories of violence affect conflict-affected societies after spending the summer at a prestigious research and graduate preparatory program. Solomon "Ra'phael" Davis, a junior Donaghey Scholar double majoring in philosophy and international studies, spent June and July at theNational Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) in Conflict Management and Peace Science at University of North Texas. Students participating in the program receive a $4,000 stipend, free room and board during the program, and paid travel expenses.

Social media researchers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have been recognized with the best paper award at an international conference for their research on the behavioral analysis of digital societies formed on the video-sharing platform YouTube. Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Information Science and director of the Collaboratorium of Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS), presented the paper that was co-authored by Muhammad Nihal Hussain, doctoral student in information science; Kiran Kumar Bandell, doctoral student in information science; Dr. Serpil Tokdemir, postdoctoral researcher at COSMOS; and Dr. Samer Al-khateeb, UA Little Rock alumnus and assistant professor of computer science and informatics at Creighton University.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student has received a $2,750 Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) award from the Arkansas Department of Education to research an outdated maritime law that lawyers invoked in an attempt to avoid or limit legal damages sought by victims and their family members in a tourist boat accident that killed 17 people last summer. Madeline Burke, a junior international and legal studies major and Donaghey Scholar from Little Rock, is thankful to receive the prestigious award that is a "great opportunity for people to research special topics of their interest." Burke said she was inspired to investigate the 1851 maritime law after reading newspaper articles that explained how lawyers for two companies, Ripley Entertainment Inc. and Branson Duck Vehicles, facing multiple lawsuits over the July 17 accident used the obscure law.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student is shedding light on long-overlooked contributions black communities in Arkansas made to the World War I effort. Crystal Shurley, an archivist at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies who completed her Master of Arts in public history in December 2018, wrote her thesis on the history of the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council, an early archivist group that was active during World War I and has remained a relatively undocumented part of Arkansas history. "This is an important piece of black Arkansas history that has not been investigated," Shurley said. "I think it's important that we remember that history is made by everyone, and not everyone that is a history maker is a white male. Unfortunately, in history we often focus on people who are in the limelight instead of ordinary people who have worked hard to achieve great things and often get no credit."

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is researching how places of worship in Little Rock work with nonprofit organizations to promote community engagement and provide social services to vulnerable populations. The Little Rock Congregations Study is part of an ongoing research project led by Dr. Rebecca Glazier, professor in the School of Public Affairs, stemming from research begun in 2012 to study the effects of religious organizations on community engagement in Little Rock. The interdisciplinary project brought together 59 student researchers from UA Little Rock who gained invaluable research experience. More than 110 clergy members from congregations across Little Rock completed the survey, while 24 clergy were interviewed. Additionally, students wrote 22 community spotlight stories.

An article written by University of Arkansas at Little Rock researchers, students, and collaborators has been accepted for publication into "Nanoscale," a peer-reviewed scientific journal, as well as included in the 2018 Nanoscale HOT Article Collection. The article, "Quantification of cellular associated graphene and induced surface receptor responses," presents a new, combination-based way to quantify and analyze the effect of graphene at the single cell level.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student spent the summer at a prestigious study abroad program where he examined Argentina's films to determine the role they play in citizens' LGBTQ rights. Dylan Wright, a junior Spanish and political science double major from Little Rock, attended the School for International Training through the study abroad program, "Argentina: Human Rights and Social Media," from March through June.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock history professor and his graduate students are making headway into a mystery 99 years in the making. Dr. Brian Mitchell and his graduate students in the Intro to Public History Class have followed a trail of clues through cemeteries, public records, and databases as part of their search to discover what happened to a dozen black men wrongfully sentenced to death in a time of great racial turmoil in the aftermath of the 1919 Elaine Massacre.

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and doctoral student have received a $20,000 Google AI research grant for their research in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Dr. Xiaowei Xu, professor of information science, and Tolgahan Cakaloglu, a doctoral candidate in computer science, received the grant for their project, "Contextual Advanced Text Representation via Improved Deep Language Model by Utilizing Side Information." This advanced artificial intelligence technique can be successfully applied to many areas, including natural language processing, information retrieval, and search engines. Xu and Cakaloglu are currently researching how to improve a computer's understanding of natural language to improve people's experiences with search engines.

Researchers from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are joining the ranks of technology companies and universities like Google, Intel, Stanford University, and Harvard University to create the next generation benchmark suite for machine learning. Wei "David" Dai, a doctoral candidate in information science, is pursuing dissertation research on evaluating machine learning with imperfect data. Machine learning is a field of computer science that uses statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to learn from data.

For those who have seen Tony Stark effortlessly controlling virtual computer screens in the "Iron Man" and "Avengers" movies, you have seen Zack Bolt's vision for his research. Bolt, a graduate student in computer science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has developed a virtual computer monitor system that he hopes can eventually replace its physical counterparts.